Tag Archives: Los angeles street art

In Los Angeles street art piracy is rampant. People steal, counterfeit, and straight up copy other artists all just to make some noise. Bandit decided it would be a good idea to post about this, while doing it himself.

How did he do this? By posting in a very famous spot used by Blek le Rat. The fact that there is art there and it is not Blek’s is sort of piracy in its own right. The question is, is this on purpose sort of doubly pointing out the hypocrisy of street art in LA or is it just another attention grab?

Guys I know there have been a lot of things thrown around on here, lot’s of promises. Well things are going to change. More posts, yet less.

I tried the updating every hour thing, shorter posts. But the traffic wasn’t what I expected and honestly that is not how I want to run the blog. So I have been doing a little bit of soul searching, considered shutting down the blog. The street art scene in LA is everything I thought it would be, and more, but not in all good ways. The more I see the more I understand what Banksy may have been trying to say- not everyone should “do” street art. It is cheap here, not as important or ground breaking as it was when I was in Barcelona or Pittsburgh. Also working lot’s of overtime lately to make ends meet.

It sort of reminds me of the Warhol / Obey dilemma. The repetitiveness of it all got to me, instead of giving things power – it lost it’s magic. LA can do that to you. A prime example (besides the obvious Mr Brainwash)? Bankrupt Slut. To me, this “artist” entails everything I find morose about some of the street art here. The art is cheapened, meaningless, without a message, repetitive and the vehicle to a quick buck. Shame on you!

Bit I will not give up! I will never surrender. So starting in the new year and over a holiday, I will start posting again more regularly. This time around though, we are going back to longer more thought out posts. I post this in haste right now because I just want to keep all ye faithful updated. I will be back, and with vengeance. No more broken promises, I mean it this time.

So here are the beginning steps of the new project! Let me emphasize beginning.

My experience in LA has been an interesting one to this point. With any journey, there have been ups and downs. A lot of downs… feeling like a failure from time to time. Feeling alone and helpless from time to time. There have been ups too, don’t get me wrong, getting this job I have now being a major one. But there have been a lot of downs. Realizing you don’t know where you are going, if what you are doing is right. Realizing you left all of your friends and family behind. It’s easy to feel lost and I did. I do still now and then. Lost in a city filled with people trying to find themselves. Lost in a city of Lust.

OKAY. I know. We I post about Morley a lot. But I want to be honest with you guys and I just want to clarify, I don’t think he is perfect or even really that great. In fact.. he isn’t really that much of an artists- just a good writer. Well, a good one-line writer… who happens to have the god damn courage to get up and say something. That being said… I freaking love this piece.